I’ve been really impressed by the daily group-buy offers and have even purchased one (and nearly purchased a few others). I love receiving those daily deal emails from StealTheDeal, Groupon, TeamBuy, GoodNews, LivingSocial, and EthicalDeal. Another great experience: Once we ordered an all-region DVD player but it arrived only being able to play Region 2. We emailed the eBay seller who was able to send us instructions to reset the region to 0. Fantastic customer service!

~~~

But since Saturday, one recent experience has been pissing me off. I really need to rant about poor customer service. Frankly, I don’t care if you’re at Comic-Con or on the other side of the world (hello World Wide Web…). I ordered this item a month ago and I just want a damn response regarding a replacement!

Craig’s birthday is this Friday and he’s a fan of the online comic, VG Cats. He’s been laughing over this humourous Zelda-themed shirt sold by SharkRobot for a while. (View the VG cats comic it’s based on OR read a Game FAQ to find out why it’s funny). He hadn’t ordered the shirt due to the cost of shipping to the UK. Good for me though, since shipping to Canada was pretty reasonable. I ordered the shirt a month ago and it arrived last Friday (allow 4-6 weeks for shipping, fine).

But when I opened the package I was highly disappointed. As you can see above, the image is supposed to be large and wrap-around. It is tiny and only on the front.I replied to the “Order Shipped” email with my dissatisfaction and demanded they reprint the tshirt as advertised and reship it to me. I don’t want a refund, I want the product I paid for. I hadn’t heard anything by today (Tuesday) so I sent another message via their website and quoted my Order Confirmation number. As of this post, I still haven’t heard back. Grrrr…

~~~

Online Shopping silver lining: today I came home and Kim Werker had retweeted something from PoppyTalk about an online sewing class. I’ve been really tempted to take some of the clothing workshops and tutorials offered at local shops, but really don’t feel my skills are up to snuff. I realize that the point of a class is to learn, but if my basic skills aren’t honed, I might miss out on what I really want to learn about. What appeals to me about a local class is that with clothing, they can help measure me and teach me how to modify patterns to fit.

However, with this online Home Ec class offered by Leigh-Ann, Courtenay and Rachel, I’ll be able to practise some basic skills for a reasonable price! I ordered as soon as I finished reading the list of project and course description.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

— B. Shaw

On September 13-17, 2010, book bloggers across the net will be celebrating the third annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week. This is the second year I’ve helped out with the website CMS and design. On Wednesday evening, My Friend Amy and I sat down to hash out the design for 2010.

Here are some of the images that didn’t make the cut:

This image felt a little dated with the old-style CRT monitor.

This was just slightly creepy…

This felt too impersonal, especially since BBAW is all about the community

This was friendly… but perhaps a little too friendly… borderline creepy.

[P.S. These are all images Amy found while looking for something good. These weren't seriously considered.]

Our first resource is The League of Canadian Poets, a great place for news and author lists. One great feature is that you can sort poets by province of residence. Check out all these great BC poets! To celebrate National Poetry Month, the League of Canadian Poets announced a theme of “Climate Change” and launched a League Poetry Month blog. They also have an additional initiative to celebrate P.K. Page, an extraordinary poet who passed away in January 2010 in her home in Victoria, BC. An offshoot of the League of Canadian Poets, check out YoungPoets.ca! They are also involved in the National Poetry Month theme of “Climate Change”.

For poetry events and happenings, check out the League’s full listing of Poetry Month events. They also have a list of readings (updated every second month). The Poetry Kit also keeps a great list of on-going and reoccurring readings.

In poetry news, the shortlists for two Canadian poetry awards were announced this week. I personally find awards a fantastic way to see some of the great new releases. View the shortlists for the 2010 Pat Lowther and Gerald Lampert Memorial Awards. The BC Book Prizes, has the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize which celebrates British Columbian poets. And the BC Book Prizes website features all the past winners since the prizes began in 1985. To be honest, talking about Canadian literary prizes could be an entire post itself. So, I’ll direct you to Wikipedia’s list of Poetry Awards, with a full list of Canadian poetry awards.

Vancouver Poetry House is a great website with forums, featured poets, podcasts, events and the Vancouver Poetry Slam team. On April 19th, a new VanSlam Poetry Team will be chosen by the audience (and judges). Vancouver Poetry House is inviting everyone to join in the Poetry Slam Playoffs featuring the 2009 Individual Word Poetry Slam Champ, Joaquin Zihuatanejo.

Another ‘alternative’ poetry resource is The World Poetry Reading Series. They have readings, fundraisers, special events, and more. If you ever have the chance to check out these poets and/or poetry readings, you won’t be disappointed. I’ve seen them at The Word on the Street Vancouver, a local reading festival and you’ll really enjoy it even if poetry isn’t your ‘thing’.

Another great resource for Vancouver is VancouverVerse.ca, the website for the Vancouver Poet Laureate. The Poet Laureate Program was made possible by a generous donation from Dr. Yosef Wosk, a prominent Vancouverite and supporter of the arts. The Poet Laureate Program is a partnership of the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Public Library and the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. Begun in 2007, George McWhirter was Vancouver’s inaugural Poet Laureate. Brad Cran is currently Vancouver’s second poet laureate until 2011.

*deep breath* wow that was a lot of information. Anyway, I hope you’ve clicked lots of links and have tons of bookmarks to look at. Enjoy the rest of the National Poetry Month Blog Tour 2010! Thank you so much Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit for arranging everything.

The Vancouver Police Museum has organized two more Forensics for Adults Workshops: tomorrow night is Blood Splatter and the following Tuesday will be Ballistics (Bullets). I loved learning creepy and gruesome things about my city’s history that I never knew (even growing up here) and would definitely recommend a visit even once the workshops are done.

Wednesday and Thursday were full of dental and doctor appointments. Let’s skip over that… I’ve got much more interesting things to talk about.

On Friday afternoon, I met up with Chelle for some sushi before going to see Handmade Nation. We arrived early at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) and got a chance to look around the current exhibit, The Art of Craft. The Art of Craft is part of the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad and showcases handcrafted art from western Canada and Korea. The exhibit is on until April 11 and really is a gorgeous display of unique art. Our only complaint was that crafting is such a tactile activity, but the exhibit wasn’t meant to be touched (as is similar in other museums).

The main event at MOV was a screening of Handmade Nation. When Got Craft? did a couple showings in the summer, I was really bummed I missed it. When I heard that MOV was screening it on Friday, March 19th, I jumped at the chance! Overall it was a good documentary and I’m certainly glad I got to see it. Although, I initially thought it was going to focus more on the community of crafting, it was certainly interesting to explore the small business side of handmade goods. MOV had also arranged for several local craftspeople to have a Q&A afterwards: Kim Werker, crochet/knitter and author, Erin Boniferro, owner of CollageCollage, and Rob from GotCraft? Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair.

This weekend I celebrated my twenty-second birthday. I haven’t had a proper party in my new apartment (not that I’m much of a party-er) so I decided to rent a button-maker and have some friends over on the Saturday. Yes you read that right… we made buttons, and it was pretty awesome! I rented a button-maker and circle cutter from Blim Art & Craft Facility and bought button parts in bulk from Six Cent Press. I designed a bunch of buttons ahead of time but also made sure to have lots of funky paper and pens for anyone who wanted to draw button designs. We had a good time through the afternoon and it quieted down in the evening.

And last but not least, on Sunday (my actual birthday) we had a family dinner at my parents’ house with my uncles and cousins. It was a really nice night and I enjoyed sitting around and laughing with my cousins. Overall a very busy (but good) week and I am looking forward to something a little less hectic this week/weekend.

Canada Reads 2010 also concluded the debates on Friday, March 12. The winner was Nikolski by Nicolas Dicker, translated by Lazer Lederhendler. In my review of Nikolski, I mention I was pleasantly surprised by the translation. However, I’d like to comment that the Canada Reads debates weren’t as intriguing for me this year compared to last year. I remember painting my bedroom last March/April and listening to the debates. I kept thinking “oh I want to read that” for each of the books. I loved The Book Of Negroes and still really want to read Fruit: A Novel About A Boy and His Nipples by Brian Frances and Outlander by Gil Adamson. I think that this year they spent too long debating what makes a book “Canadian”, which was never really the point of Canada Reads. I guess that they [CBC/Canada Reads] need to make their criteria less vague (“A book that all Canadians should read”) so that they [the champions] spend more time talking about the books themselves.

The UK’s Orange Prize for Fiction also released the 2010 longlist today. The Guardian newspaper in the UK has a great mini-site set up so you can browse through the titles. Some of the books have now been added to my TBR mountain, including Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel which also won the Man Booker Prize in 2009 and The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison, one of seven debut novelists.

Also, of note:

• The 2010 Pulitzer Prize (Pull it, Surprise!) awards will be announced April 12.
• On March 8, 2010, the Jury for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize was announced. The Gillers announces their longlist in September, shortlist in October, and winner in November.

P.S. If anyone knows of anything I missed, please let me know! I love hearing about new things in the publishing community.

CANADA READS INDEPENDENTLY

When I first heard about Canada Reads Independently 2010, I thought it was a list of books from independent presses. Wrong. It turns out that Kerry Clare of Pickle Me This launched Canada Reads 2010: Independently for a different reason. Kerry says, “I’m not going to knock [Canada Reads] because I love the spirit behind the whole thing… but it just wasn’t the reading list for me. What I wanted was what I found from (most of) the 2009 lineup– book recommendations out of nowhere, books I’d never pick up otherwise, that challenge my sensibilities, and that I might just fall in love with.”

In an interview with Julie Wilson (aka BookMadam) at CBC Book Club, Kerry said, “I’m going to be reading the five books over the next two months, posting reviews as I go, and rating the books against one another. I’ll be inviting other readers to comment on my reactions to the books, perhaps have some guest posts and coverage of other readers’ reviews, and then I’ll choose my own favourite of the bunch, and we’ll have a vote to come up with a readers’ choice champion as well. And I’m hoping my “celebrity panelists” will be able to weigh in from time to time in their book’s defence, which should be fun.”

The books:

• Moody Food by Ray Robertson
  (championed by Steven W. Beattie of the Quill & Quire)
• How Happy to Be by Katrina Onstad
  (championed by author Rona Maynard)
• Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso
  (championed by Melanie Owen of Roughing it in the Books)
• Hair Hat by Carrie Snyder
  (championed by illustrator Patricia Storms)
• Century by Ray Smith
  (championed by publisher/bookseller/editor Dan Wells of Biblioasis)

CANADA ALSO READS

The National Post’s book blog The Afterword has released a selection of titles called Canada Also Reads 2010. When the Canada Reads list was released, they agreed with “many of the 140-character-or-less comments that appeared in the moments after this year’s crop was unveiled: these are great books, but haven’t they already been read?” And so Canada Also Reads was born. They are “a fan of what Canada Reads has done to promote CanLit, we figured this would be a great opportunity to help shine a light on some of the books sitting in the shadows. What books should Canada also read, we asked? We were immediately inundated with hundreds and hundreds of submissions from readers across the country.”

The books:

• My White Planet by Mark Anthony Jarman
  (defended by writer and critic Steven Beattie)
• The Day The Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
  (defended by author Tish Cohen)
• Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
  (defended by singer/songwriter Andy Maize)
• The Last Shot by Leon Rooke
  (defended by poet Jacob McArthur Mooney)
• Yellowknife by Steve Zipp
  (defended by blogger John Mutford)
• You And The Pirates by Jocelyne Allen
  (defended by author Lisa Pasold)
• Come Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
  (defended by author Neil Smith)
• Fear of Fighting by Stacey May Fowles, pictures by Marlena Zuber
  (defended by author Zoe Whittall)

Last year when I posted about Canada’s Freedom to Read Week, I was trying to read The Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and/or Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov as part of the challenge. Unfortunately, I haven’t read either book as I got distracted by my huge TBR Pile. However, this year, I’ve got more exciting news: my friend Diane has begun a challenge on BookCrossing to Release Challenged Books as part of Freedom to Read Week 2010. The challenge to release banned/challenged books, or books by persecuted/jailed authors (especially Canadian) during the month of February.

Freedom to Read Week is from February 21-27, 2010 and lots of Canadian libraries celebrate with special events and challenges. Make sure to check out the Calendar of Events on the Freedom to Read website to see if your local library is planning anything. If they aren’t, why not ask if they will!?

Can’t think of any banned or challenged books or authors? You’ll be surprised by some of the names on these lists.

• Freedom to Read Week has a list of Challenged Books & Magazines
• Wikipedia list of books banned by governments around the world
• Amnesty International USA has updates on Banned Books each year
• PEN Canada helps to protect and aide persecuted writers

Please release your Canadian banned or challenged books and authors via BookCrossing and help spread the freedom to read.

“These evenings are designed to show the city and the world real and diverse Vancouver culture and real creative individuals in the literary and publishing communities at a time when the eyes of the world are on our city.

Each night will showcase local writers doing short readings their work and/or interacting with a moderator, taking questions from the audience and will include book sales, signings, a multi-media component, music, cash bar, raffles and give-aways.

Every night will consist of writers that will give the in-house audience a glimpse of the variety of cultures, ethnicities, forms and skills of writers living and working in Vancouver.

It will showcase the writers, their books, their publishers and other support structures within the local community and the larger culture and publishing communities.“

Organized jointly by Books on the Radio and Geist Magazine, the talent line-ups each week are phenominal. Make sure to follow @W2Woodwards on Twitter for all the latest updates.

http://realvancouverwriters.com/

I am amazed at how much as been spent on advertising within our own city. It’s certainly something you don’t see during the Olympics on TV: the entire saturation of the city in Olympic promotions. Every single advertising space, billboard, transit shelter, etc. is taken up by VANOC or an official sponsor promoting the Games. Although a lot of things have also been installed to aid tourists. For example, we finally have Information boards posted in major areas. This was something that I was really impressed with in England, I could get into a station and just follow the signs to different sights around the city. [Note: for the cynics still out there, there is The Olympic Resistance]

Cynicism aside, there are a few things I’m looking forward to. I will sit at home, watching the Olympics on TV and be able to point and go “I know where that is!” There is also the Cultural Olympiad. Despite the buckets of money that the BC Government has cut to Arts budgets, part of the Olympic bid for Vancouver was our “unique cultural events”. The Cultural Olympiad and many other events occuring around the city (both paid and free) include music, art, dance, ceremonies, installations, etc. That is the kind of thing I’m looking forward to.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There is far too much going on to have a complete handle, but here are a few links if you’re interested (and for me to keep things straight):

• Cultural Olympiad (official) – full of free and paid multidiciplinary events
• Miss604 – Vancouver’s “it-girl” blogger. Check in daily, she even has an Olympic Blog feed.
• Olympic Torch Relay (ongoing)
• BC Living – sign up for daily emails during the Games about coping with things to do in the city.
• Vancouver Pavillion & Cultural Houses – visit Miss604′s post about all the locations.
• Official Celebration Sites – including LiveCity Vancouver, Whistler Live!, Richmond O Zone, and more.
• Made In Vancouver – I heart VanArt celebrates local art and creativity.
• CanaMADE – a market celebrating art and craft from Canada.
• CityCaucus lists tons of free events occuring in the city (some repeats)
• Vectorial Elevation – a light display from dusk till dawn over English Bay

Click here to view the embedded video.